Linking Coronal Heating to Coronal Structure and Complexity at Global Scales

The Sun’s magnetic field plays a pivotal role in the processes that heat the corona and accelerate the solar wind. Understanding this interplay—particularly as it changes across spatiotemporal scales and magnetic morphologies—is essential for testing our theories of coronal heating and for developing state-of-the-art models that describe the corona and inner heliosphere. In this talk, I will outline the coronal heating problem from the perspective of a global coronal modeler, illustrating ways in which we can learn about the heating problem by studying magnetic fields in realistic coronal contexts from local to global scales. This includes 1) the subtle ways in which heating and the magnetic field may feed back on one another in determining the plasma state and morphology; and 2) the surprising influence of small-scale flux elements and parasitic polarities at the photosphere on the heating and hydrodynamics of the corona at global scales. Both have important implications for our understanding of coronal heating and time-dependent dynamics that are observed throughout the corona and inner heliosphere.